Prestige speech patterns

Abstract

In the previous chapter we were concerned with arbitrary exclusions from the standard corpus. Here we look at the converse phenomenon. By this we mean phonetic patterns or grammatical structures that appear to have become embedded in linguistic practice as a by-product of standardization. Adapting the phrase ‘grammatically deviant prestige constructions’ (Emonds 1986), we refer to such phenomena as ‘prestige speech patterns’. In this formulation, the term ‘prestige’ is a recognition of the fact that the relevant patterns occupy a characteristic position in the ideology of the standard: typically they are emblematic of the standard variety and they require a degree of conscious effort (self-editing) on the part of speakers. Such patterns are also normally associated with late acquisition: prestige grammar, in particular, is usually acquired during schooling. Analogously to other pedagogical outcomes, an individual’s competence in relation to a prestige speech pattern may be ‘imperfect’, in the sense that it fails to attain the highest levels of prescriptive adequacy, often due to a tendency to employ the pattern beyond its agreed domain of use. Fowler and Fowler (1922), for example, talk in this connection of ‘bad blunders’ (p. 61) and ‘gross errors’ (p. 93). Linguists prefer the term ‘hypercorrection’, which for expository purposes we retain here, despite its implicitly normative perspective. Accordingly, the next section relates to hypercorrection in pronunciation, and includes the case study of intrusive liaison in French.